Fighter jets deployment around Delhi shelved due to bird activity

Heightened bird-scare has made the Indian Air Force (IAF) shelve its plans to deploy fighter jets in the National Capital Region to guard the skies of Delhi.
 

The snail pace work on the proposed landfill near Hindon air base in Uttar Pradesh, has resulted in the casualty of IAF’s plan aiming to fortify the national capital. IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne had hinted at basing the air-defence fighters at Hindon air base, the closest base to Delhi.

“It is not happening in near future as the work on landfill in Ghaziabad is not progressing well. The threat of a bird-hit is lot higher in Hindon due to the garbage in open areas,” a top IAF functionary said, requesting anonymity. The work had picked up pace during the Commonwealth Games in 2010, however, post the event there has been no progress in the landfill construction.

The fighter deployment plan was part of Rs. 5,000 crore-proposal that had received the in-principle approval of the Defence Ministry. The force was deliberating on stationing its frontline fighter jets Su-30MKI at Hindon.

Underlining the importance of the project, the official said: “We need to bulwark against threats in the changing scenario. Fighters in Hindon would help in cutting down reaction time for scrambling aircraft.” Presently the nearest fighter bases to Delhi are Ambala (Haryana), Sirsa (Haryana) and Bareilley (Uttar Pradesh) and it would take fighters from these bases 15 plus minutest to reach Delhi skies whereas those in Hindon would take around five minutes.

Fighters were based in Hindon till 1997. Due to slew of crashes caused by bird hits the fighters were moved out of the National Capital Region.

The proposal to upgrade air defence around the national capital was mooted by the Defence Ministry in 2003 in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks when hijacked airliners rammed into the World Trade Centre killing thousands and changing the way countries perceived the threat of terrorism.

Securing the Delhi skies, gradualky, the IAF has revamped the infrastructure at the Hindon air base to station their newly acquired Special Operation aircraft C-130 Js, procured from the US. The aircraft are capable of striking enemy behind its lines in covert operations. It has the capability of getting ready in short duration and can take off and land at short and unpaved runways. In fact it is the only aircraft in the inventory of the IAF that can lend in pitch dark conditions.

Proposals have been made to strengthen the Joint Command and Analysis Centre, comprising of the IAF and civil aviation authorities, with radars to identify any rogue aircrafts, combat jets to scramble them and missile systems to shoot them down if required.